Coq au Vin

We had some excess white wine to use up, so I decided to cook Coq au Vin (chicken in wine). It can also be done with red wine, but adding cornflour paste to thicken the sauce at the end in place of adding the cream. Delicious served with some mashed potato, carrots and broccolini (baby broccoli).

Ingredients:

1 chicken, 1.5-2.0 kg, cut into 6-8 pieces

1 large onion, sliced

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

250 g mushrooms, halved or quartered

olive oil

4-5 slices of short-cut bacon, chopped 

500 ml dry white wine

250 ml cream

salt and pepper

fresh parsley, small bunch, chopped



Method:

1. In a large frying pan cook the bacon in a little olive oil. Remove to a plate lined with paper towel.

2. Brown the chicken pieces in the same pan and then add them to the plate with the bacon.

3. In the same pan cook the onion for a few minutes until it starts to soften, then add the garlic. Stir and cook a minute longer, then remove the onion and garlic to a bowl.

4. Now cook the mushrooms in the same way, adding some more olive oil to the pan if necessary.

5. Put the bacon, chicken, onions and garlic back in the pan with the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper.

6. Add the wine, stir and then allow to simmer for about 40 minutes with lid on.

7. Remove lid for the last 10 minutes to allow the sauce to reduce. (Optional: remove the meat and veg from the pan while reducing the sauce).

8. Add the cream, stir and simmer a further 10 minutes, adding the parsley as a garnish towards the end.